“The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy extended OS and PFS compared with chemotherapy alone among patients with metastatic, squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer, according to results of the randomized phase 3 KEYNOTE-407 trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer.

“The double-blind study included 559 treatment-naive patients with metastatic, squamous NSCLC. Patients who had symptomatic central nervous system metastases, a history of noninfectious pneumonitis that required the use of glucocorticoids, active autoimmune disease or who were receiving systemic immunosuppressive treatment were excluded.”

“Beyond the May 2017 FDA approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus carboplatin/pemetrexed for nonsquamous patients regardless of PD-L1 status, researchers are turning their focus to immunotherapy combinations in squamous patients in ongoing clinical trials. For example, the randomized, open-label, phase III IMpower131 study is evaluating the safety and efficacy of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in combination with carboplatin/paclitaxel or carboplatin/nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) versus carboplatin/nab-paclitaxel in chemotherapy-naïve patients with stage IV squamous NSCLC (NCT02367794). The trial, which has a primary endpoint of progression-free survival, is expected to enroll 1021 patients.”

“Oncolytics Biotech Inc. …today announced additional data from IND 211, a randomized, Phase II clinical study of REOLYSIN® in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC”). The study enrolled patients with both non-squamous (adenocarcinoma) and squamous cell histology. Those with adenocarcinoma (n=75) were treated with REOLYSIN® in combination with pemetrexed in the test arm versus pemetrexed alone in the control arm. Those with squamous cell histology (n=76) were treated with REOLYSIN® in combination with docetaxel in the test arm versus docetaxel alone in the control arm. The study’s primary objective was progression free survival (“PFS”). Its secondary objectives included overall survival (“OS”), safety, and measurement of biomarkers that may be predictive of response.”

Do you have questions about this story? Let us know in a comment below. If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to use our Ask Cancer Commons service.

“The FGFR inhibitor dovitinib showed modest efficacy in a phase II trial of patients with pretreated, advanced squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung with FGFR1 amplification. Further work on the drug, in particular to find biomarkers of efficacy, was deemed warranted.

“ ‘The majority of new cytotoxic chemotherapies for the treatment of non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) such as pemetrexed or targeted agents such as gefitinib or erlotinib are not indicated for the SCC subtype because of a lack of efficacy or because activity is limited to tumors with specific genetic alterations that are rarely found in patients with squamous cell NSCLC,’ wrote study authors led by Myung-Ju Ahn, MD, PhD, of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea. SCC accounts for about 30% of all NSCLC cases.”

Do you have questions about this story? Let us know in a comment below. If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to use our Ask Cancer Commons service.

“Treatment with sacituzumab govitecan induced objective responses and appeared tolerable in patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer who had received first-line platinum-based therapy, according to the results from an expansion cohort of a phase 1/2 study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

” ‘This therapy showed efficacy for squamous and non-squamous patients as well as for patients with prior PD-1/PD-L1 therapy,’ D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, professor in the division of medical oncology and Joyce Zeff chair in lung cancer research at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said during a presentation.

Do you have questions about this story? Let us know in a comment below. If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to use our Ask Cancer Commons service.

“US health officials have expanded the approved indications for Boehringer Ingelheim’s Gilotrif, clearing its use in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.

“Gilotrif (afatinib), an oral, once-daily EGFR-directed therapy, is currently cleared in the US for the first-line treatment of specific types of EGFR mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

“Approval for squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, a disease linked with a particularly bleak poor prognosis of one-year survival post diagnosis, was based on data from the head-to-head LUX-Lung 8 trial in patients whose tumours progressed after first-line chemotherapy.”

Do you have questions about this story? Let us know in a comment below. If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to use our Ask Cancer Commons service.

“Afatinib (Giotrif, EU; Gilotrif, US) has received a positive recommendation from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) as a treatment for patients with advanced squamous cell non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following progression on platinum-based chemotherapy, according to Boehringer Ingelheim, the manufacturer of the irreversible EGFR inhibitor.

“The CHMP opinion, which recommends that the treatment should gain approval from the European Medicines Agency in this setting, is based on data from the phase III LUX-Lung 8 trial. In the study, second-line afatinib reduced the risk of both disease progression and death by 19%, compared with erlotinib (Tarceva) in patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the lung.”